The rules are pretty simple. Stick to the general forum rules (http://www.minisculpture.co.uk/index.php?board=2.0). This is non-competitive in that there will be no winners that receive prizes. This is an informal activity, although participants are welcome to push and test themselves, compete for bragging rights, or simply bounce ideas and inspirations and see the individual results. Sculpts don't have to be finished within the month, but each new sculptalong should begin on the first of each month.Pictures can be posted in the relevant sculptalong topic, or on the WIP (http://www.minisculpture.co.uk/index.php?board=6.0) and Finished Sculpts (http://www.minisculpture.co.uk/index.php?board=11.0) boards (or on the Personal Logs (http://www.minisculpture.co.uk/index.php?board=14.0) board, if you want to place all your sculptalong progress and results together); though it would be handy to post notifications and links in the main topic.

This shouldn't be too hard: what're your likes, dislikes and opinions for the monthly sculptalong? (including whether it should be called a 'sculptalong') I think something nice 'n' generic would be good to get the ball rolling. Humanoid and human-sized at 28-32mm, on a common theme. Barbarian, anyone?

I've also been tossing the idea of 'Monster Hunter' around. Opens it up to various genre. I was thinking you could have high fantasy dragon hunters, gothic Vanhelsing types, modern Crypitid detectives or Sci-Fi Alien Big Game hunters. It's quite a wide spectrum but by restricting it to a human/humanoid it would tighten the brief.

I want to stick a few historical months in too, every so often, catering for a wide range of interests (and hopefully encouraging people to try something unfamiliar). 'Course, it'd include some 'pulpy' themes like the old west and pirates, among the exacting studies of military uniforms.

This TMP thread (http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=195830) encourages me, in a way. I'm also disappointed by a lot of historical minis (but maybe I'll save that spiel for further up the forum) and I'm curious to see if any sculptalongs here could produce something close to the kind of historical character minis the OP wants. I don't know if I'd enforce Tom Meier's strictly realistic proportions, though. (But he does pwn that topic almost effortlessly)

I'd better mention that beside various themes, I want to stick in the odd different scales too. Maybe it'd be a good idea to go window-shopping for optivisors. ;D

Surprisingly not! I've had the idea for a giant hunter, inspired by the character Balgus from the Vision of Escaflowne anime (basicly an old dude who fights giant magic mechs with a huge sword), bubbling around in the back of my mind for a while and thought a challenge would serve as motivation to start him!Historicals scare the willies out of me, but a challenge is about pushing the envelope so I'd be down with it!

Same story with other scales, 54mm and 15mm have been on my to do list for an age so the motivation will come in handy!

Is it a bad thing when you do a google image search for visigoths, and the first result is a cartoon viking with a horned helmet?

Also, any regular members of CMoN here? This might be of interest to some of the sculptors there, but while I'm a member I'm not much of a regular poster, and could risk coming across as spamming. And they didn't seem to like the news announcement of minisculpture's opening.

Ah, I probably should've clearer about where to stick digital sculpts. When it says 'purely digital sculpts' in the description of the Other Sculpting board, I mean it's for digital sculpts that aren't intended as minis and won't be printed as such. Digisculpts that will end up as physical minis, like Terragnosis products, can go up in the main WIP and Finished Sculpt boards.

Sculptalongs, where the main aim is just to sculpt (though it certainly doesn't stop participants putting their results to commercial use ;)), could be a bit tricky with regards to digital sculptures. My biggest worry is that I want sculptalongs to encourage sculptors to try different scales and see how they do. That could be difficult to see and demonstrate with digital sculpts, and it'd be unfair to ask for (pricey?) 3D prints of every digisculpt at the right scale.

But then again, I don't intend sculptalongs to be anywhere near that strict and formal! I'll probably set up more activities etc. for digital sculptors if more post on the boards, but until then digital sculpts are welcome in the sculptalongs, and can be posted on the same boards (see above).

Ive been thinking about this alot, and I think it would be a good idea to get the monthly winner cast. I will therefore offer to put the winners model in one of our master molds and send them as many copies as come off the mold when we spin our masters, its usually 8-10 copies. would you be interested in adding that to the future comps?

there are 2 provisos, it needs to be 28-35mm scale and it needs to be castable :D

Yup. What Captainspud said. Sorry. There's definitely going to be casting involved in the annual competition; but I still have to think how to go about the competition itself, let alone the casting angle.

'Course, nothing to stop people doing what they like with their original designs, including selling or casting them. Pretty much like any other 'hey look what I sculpted' topic here, only more... social.Besides, I intend throwing all kinds of scales into this, beyond 28-35mm. Wait until I start scheduling the 6mm sculptalongs. ;)

I like the idea of a sculptalong. It's good for amateurs to hone skills and get constructive feedback and also talk to others about how they did certain things with their sculpts that we'd like to give a go ourselves.Sorry I haven't checked, but is there a tutorial section on this forum?

I might need a hand coming up with a short and snappy description of Visigoths. :P I started reading the the wikipedia article and got lost in the early divisions of the Goths. And I thought Tolkien's elf tribes were convoluted...

I was thinking to do my first female for the august scifi....... :P54mm female sounds good though.for the future how about...?Animals/horses :o(small) Dinosaur :PRobot/insect/something with lots of hard edges.maybe something along the lines of working in different styles e.g. caricature, realism, anime, abstract..... maybe not abstract just post impressionist

Ive been thinking about this alot, and I think it would be a good idea to get the monthly winner cast. I will therefore offer to put the winners model in one of our master molds and send them as many copies as come off the mold when we spin our masters, its usually 8-10 copies. would you be interested in adding that to the future comps?

there are 2 provisos, it needs to be 28-35mm scale and it needs to be castable :D

steve

If this offer still stands then i think it could be a very good thing for both the forum and the skills of various sculptors and should be given another chance.

SA's need not be a competition but if there is a reward like this it may inspire some slower sculptors to actually finish and seeing ones work cast can be a very useful learning experience.

The 'winner' could be decided on factors that include: how good the finished sculpt is, wether they have 'won' before and how much the sculptor would benefit from seeing their work cast.

Could be a good time to start thinking about this, and what exactly needs thought about. Ownership and reproduction rights, at least; which have the potential to get a bit muddled and messy despite the best intentions of all parties. And possible global transport.

And I still dunno how limiting the provisos might be. Especially the first one. :-X Like I said, a lot of the sculptalongs will be 28mm. Most people are used to it. But I want to put in a lot of other sizes too. The Halloween monster sculptalong narrowly escaped being labelled '54mm'.

I think ownership and repro rights will obviously stay with the sculptor. Only the castings from the master spins are on offer so there's no repro to deal with there and if the sculptor wants to have a production run they'll have to organise it themselves. If the masters are spun again them i guess the casts that come off it will go back into the melting pot.

If the first proviso stays in effect them the 'prize' will obviously only apply to 28mm scale SAs. Hopefully Steve/TG will feel generous and extend it to other scales. :-* Who ever 'wins' the prize will have to post their own model and probably paypal to Steve for the return post. He can't be expected to pay the returns every couple of months.

I have to admit that I haven't thought about this at all, in the last month. I'll need to knuckle down.

Although (or because) I started my sculptalong vampire two weeks late, I had to rush it and shelved a few other, more important things to do so. Not much good for what's supposed to be a fun little diversion. I dunno how many others are having problems or thoughts like this, so I'm thinking of retrying the two-month timeframe - or maybe six weeks - for the next sculptalong. Any opinions or objections?

A comp might be a good idea, not that I'd end up getting anything done for it mind! ( I'd hate to start rumors that I actually do any sculpting...)I'd be good publicity for the forum, and combined with the 1 year anniversary it would be good for a 'public launch' so to speak (cos we're the best kept secret in the miniatures world) Who knows we could maybe even give the forum a bit of a spruce up, get some banner ad's out there... ;D

Main issue I'd see with a comp is who's it open to? What's the prize? And who'd judge it?

2 of those could be solved by enlisting the help of a sponsor (a friendly miniatures company, maybe one who is a member of this forum) who could maybe judge and help with getting the winner cast as a prize, maybe even add the winner to their existing lines?

I played a couple of games Blood Bowl recently then went on a little search for alternative BB figures and found that Impact! and Shadowforge is almost it. They both have some decent figures but a lot of really, well, not so good ones*.

So how about we do a fantasy football figure for a sculptalong? If there are 11 finished models at the end we'd even have a team, as odd ball as it may look. That would be fun to have cast up but is obviously an even bigger ask.

Though, there is a casting company local to me (spincast.co.nz) and we could probably get 100 spins for $500NZ or so. I have previously checked out prices in relation to my 54mm minis, not 11 or more 30mm.

Okay then... Does the beginning of February to the beginning of March sound good to everyone? Anything in mind for the scale and subject? Go look through the suggestions thread and point out what you all like the sound of. Although for new members and those of us who vegetated over the festive period, I'd steer towards 28mm humanoid.

Not that I'm the one that should suggest stuff for the sculptalong as I never seem to finish them, but maybe something like:

- merchants: Barter, trade, sell & buy- not that many merchants/ traders out there, but somebody's gotta shift the goods and make people part with their hard earned cash...- feakshow/ carnival: From bearded damsells in distress to fire-eaters with heartburn to three armed radiation mutants in frilly dresses- some minis might even end up being suitable pulpy retro 'men in rubber suits monsters' as well.- civilians: Everything from hapless passerby about to be devoured by a hungry tentacled fiend to nice old lady walking her bad tempered flatulent pitbull.

Just thinking of the recent link in the guides and ref section; what about an athlete? Gives lots of scope for body types, anatomy practice and dynamic posing.Other than that....... Tribesman, superhero, obese figure, figure with drapery, figure interacting with object, sitting figure, "beastman", caricature, etc.

Good points about the athletes. I also like Ink's suggestions - I have a soft spot for what you might call 'fluff' minis. I'll wait 'til the start of next week for any more suggestions, then I'll stick up a quick poll.

Count me in if it don't stray to far from 28mm human, think it's about time i stopped lurking and converting and had a go at a mini from the ground up. Clot knows iv'e got the tools and green stuff to do it. :)

Edit: I do like the idea of a beastman......just not you're ordinary goatman, choose something wacky? Armadillo-man, Okapi-fellow, Three-toed-sloth-woman, woodpecker-chap, Jellyfish-bloke? but proper "Realm of Chaos" or "Glorantan broo" not just standing-up-critter-anthro-furry-mouseguard-reaper-darksword-fest.

Edit: I do like the idea of a beastman......just not you're ordinary goatman, choose something wacky? Armadillo-man, Okapi-fellow, Three-toed-sloth-woman, woodpecker-chap, Jellyfish-bloke? but proper "Realm of Chaos" or "Glorantan broo" not just standing-up-critter-anthro-furry-mouseguard-reaper-darksword-fest.

Edit: I do like the idea of a beastman......just not you're ordinary goatman, choose something wacky? Armadillo-man, Okapi-fellow, Three-toed-sloth-woman, woodpecker-chap, Jellyfish-bloke? but proper "Realm of Chaos" or "Glorantan broo" not just standing-up-critter-anthro-furry-mouseguard-reaper-darksword-fest.

Suit yourself!

"It can be a beastman as long as it not one of those things!!!

Hilarious! XD

you're free to suggest something else Bergil. I only differentiated them as the RoC archetype is a feral warrior with the head and other attributes of an animal, generally evil and chaotic in aspect whilst the "critter-sculpts" that have become popular recently are generally anthropomorphic charicatures of fantasy/DnD staples, dressed in cod-medieval clothing, with large "cartoonish" heads.Both are eaqually valid subjects but each will stretch very different "sculpting muscles", I chose one over the other down to personal preferance, not due to hatred of one.Or come up with your own idea or pick one from the many suggestions already in this thread ;)

Despite the fact nothing has been decided yet and thus starting allready is most likely against the rules, I have started to bulk out an armature. I'll spare you the horrors of having to look at the pics till there's a bit more to show though.

Despite the fact nothing has been decided yet and thus starting allready is most likely against the rules, I have started to bulk out an armature. I'll spare you the horrors of having to look at the pics till there's a bit more to show though.

I shouldn't worry too much, Vermis should be along shortly to join in the discussion. Another two-monther might be a good idea seeing as it took that long for most to do the competition sculpt ;)

Glorantha's a rpg setting/ world (Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorantha), never played that so I can't give you any indepth infos. Broo are something like beastmen, but not necessarily with goat heads. Fenris do have some very nice ones: http://www.fenrisgames.com/shop.html#ecwid:category=2202436&mode=category&offset=0&sort=normal

Hum... What say we leave off the 'official' sculptalong for a month or two? It's a little disheartening that after two years, I could probably count the finished sculptalong sculpts on the fingers of one hand. (I've got a bunch of WIPs gathering dust, meself)I don't think it'll be too drastic - the intent of sculptalongs was to spark ideas and inspiration, but it seems everyone who comes here is bubbling over with their own ideas already. Or snowed under with commissions. Like trying to offer a drink of water to a drowning man. :PAlthough anyone who wants to sculpt a cartoon character, go right ahead!

Well, monthly is just not possible for me. I just don't have the time :(

Two sculptalongs a year would be more realistic for me and even then I'd have to do some serious time management. THat said I enjoyed every little sculpt that was made by you guys on the baord. so I have no problem if you keep them more regular, just saying that I myself won't be able to participate mostly.